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Wattpad has been a big part of fandom for a bit now. It’s a place where fandoms can have community, while also writing stories that pertain to their fandom. During NYCC, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alessandra Ferreri, the head of content at Wattpad. We discussed why Wattpad is so important in fandom, how it got that way, and why people still flock to it.
Why do you think Wattpad has had such a huge part within the fandom space?
Wattpad is a social, storytelling platform. Like, that really is its main thing, and I think that it’s become, and always has been, a space for community. And I think thatis-we crave community all the time, especially as we’re creating; writing is vulnerable, trying to find people that like the same thing as you; making the connection is a really important facet. So, maintaining that community aspect of Wattpad for the last like 20 years, I think that in the beginning that wasn’t the priority; it was meant to be a writing platform, but it so quickly became a creative writing platform and also a community platform. So with that, I think it has inherent longevity, and it scratches that itch that a lot of digital communities crave and are looking for.
How do you guys keep up with the communities and make sure they have their own safe space?
One of the biggest things we did early on was establishing an ambassador program. So there are about 600 global ambassadors on Wattpad who volunteer, and they run different community initiatives- they run things like genre profiles, maybe writing spreads, challenges; they’re in multiple languages. They love reading and writing. They love Wattpad, and we just kind of enabled them to be like, “Look, it’s less about us coming in as the company to tell you what to do. We want to actually give you the space, so what do you guys want to do?” So the ambassadors have been really incredible across the board, maintaining this level of connectivity, community, and engagement. They scout for content; they curate stuff. They just love it, and it’s them with their peers, and I feel like that’s created a really nice difference and nice balance between us being the company versus the community. So us enabling them is one of the big pieces, and of course, always trying to make the platform better. So that’s a big thing too.
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Image Source: Wattpad
Obviously, on the content side, we read stories, we look for stuff, we also look at how those stories are behaving, how our creators are behaving, what feedback they're giving us, what they’re saying they want, and then we advocate for that within the company. So we’re looking back at the product teams and the data analytics team, and we’re like, they’re missing this, this, and this; how do we make this better? So for instance, earlier this summer we launched a new taxonomy, which sounds kind of basic, but it’s more detailed so you can better categorize your story, which means people can find your story fast, and your readers have more access to your work. So making those little changes and enabling the community to thrive on their own has been a main thing for us.
How are the ambassadors selected? Are they from the community?
They are! We do applications every year, twice a year, they open up and then they go through some training they learn our content guidelines in general, best practices, and what to look for a story but ultimately they get to run their initiatives themselves. They get to do really cool contests every year, and they come up with amazing ideas. So we just want to enable that. We open submissions twice a year. They get vetted, and they go through it, and they get some training, and then they’re off to the races.
Why do you think fanfiction is such an essential part of fandom space?
I mean fandom is participatory culture, right? So when you’re in a fandom, you are actively in it, you're participating in it, you’re interacting with others, but you’re also putting your stamp on it in a way, and so much of that is, like, you know, fanfiction, or cosplay, or fanart. All of those are ways we can contribute our ideas, our thinking into the spaces that we love. If I have a perspective or a hot take, or whatever it might be, I think it’s nice to be able to have that space to interact with other peers and see what comes out of it. I think for Wattpad, if we can give a space for that to exist without corporate pressure, without having to think, " Oh, this is the way you’re supposed to engage in fandom, or this is what you’re supposed to write. Theres no restrictive kind of formula, so if we can enable that, we’ve seen within the last 20 years, what can come out of that, which is new ideas, and new perspectives and franchises in their own right, and then suddenly the next generation of voices comes out of those spaces, just because that space exists. So I think that’s pretty important overall.
How has Wattpad adapted to the growing number of fandoms?
Our taxonomy would help. That would be a huge reason, like wow, it would start enabling us to tag our fandoms and all that stuff. So listening to how we do think on the product side will help enable that. It’s always been a really flexible space; we’re UGC, right? User-generated content means there's always room for your stuff regardless. You don’t need much of a rulebook to engage with it. I think for my side as an employee, to keep up with fandoms, it is hard, but I’m lucky enough to have a huge team of people-we all have our own individual eclectic tastes, but collectively we look at a lot of data, and we track a lot of trends, and we also spend a lot of time reading and watching things externally to see how it will influence the platform. So you kind of have to be chronically online, which is a good and a bad thing, but then you use it, because the way I frame it is Wattpad is in its own little corner of the internet, and it’s influenced by the broader pop culture space, so you kind of want to be up to speed about what might infiltrate our platform, or what’s coming from our platform that might infiltrate the zeitgeist in its own way. So its just kind of keeping up to speed on our side, which is honestly like, a very cool job.
Image Source: Wattpad
Why has Wattpad stood out to fans versus other sites?
I do think it comes down to community. I think having access to community, to be able to freely follow people, you know, go exploring and find whatever you need to find. I think commenting on stories is a huge thing. Being able to comment line by line, and really engage on a story is great. I think we keep the platform pretty open and flexible in terms of how you want to engage, how you want to create. I think that really enables people to come in and just kind of make it work for them. For a writer, Wattpad is great and flexible too; you can use it and have a pen name, you can have a real name, you can write experiments, you can do long-form fiction, you know theres so many ways to use it. You can take all your stuff down, put it all back up, you know, whatever you really wanna do, so I think giving that flexibility is important, and just really allowing that connectivity to speak for itself. People I know come back to Wattpad over and over because they have friends there. Because they’ve made connections and they feel creatively inspired by themselves and also by others. So I think maintaining that has been the key to its longevity.
Is the rise of AI a concern for you at all? If a computer makes a story, it won’t have that same human touch and might lose what made it special
The way that we create will always be tied to the tool and technology we have available to us, and AI is very much in that space right now. For us I think, we’ve had 20 years of really honing in on and supporting human creativtivy, thats never going to change and something we want to prioritize always above anything else. We are a user-generated content platform, so that means as a user, whatever you want to do to create is up to you and your prerogative. But I know internally and outside, we’re seeing different uses of AI, or not; some people are pretty steadfast about its usage, others are like, I use it for this, this, and this. We want to make sure you feel creatively inspired to do what you need to do. I will say, looking at a lot of content, the human stuff stands out in amazing ways. You really get to see the creativity and uniqueness come through, and we pick up on it all the time. So it’s something we pay attention to and we want to prioritize over anything else, but we also understand that different tools for different functions is kind of a reality.
What is your favorite part of Comic-Con?
Oh, that’s a great question! I do love the cosplay, but also from this vantage point, I get to see so many things, so Im excited for tomorrow to kind of see what happens. I love the cosplay and the creativity, especially when it gets really niche. I love exploring artist alley. I like finding something cool and weird I might never see again. I was walking around yesterday, and I love The Last Unicorn. I was traumatized as a kid watching it, but I love it, and I saw someone had some art on it, and of course, finding my little fandoms and things pop up has been really cool, so I always love to see what people have.
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